Such milking system is known from e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,199. Although such a system functions satisfactorily and takes over much time-consuming work from a farmer, in practice there appears to be a need for an improvement. With dairy animals it often appears that a dominant animal wishes to be the first to enter a milking box and that other dairy animals are pushed away by this dominant animal. By this behavior of the animals the milking system may be negatively influenced, which is not only undesirable for less dominant animals in terms of undesired increase of waiting time for these animals, but also for the efficiency of the milking system, for example when it comprises a milking robot.
EP 1230849 B1 acknowledges the problem in general even though this patent is primarily devoted to solutions for feeding stations and not milking boxes. With regard to milking boxes the patent states that the disadvantageous behavior is prevented at least for the greater part when in front of the entrance gate of the milking box there is provided a further area having at least one entrance gate for containing a limited number of animals. Further, in order not to prolong unnecessarily the waiting time for dairy animals to enter the milking box, the system may comprise a detection device for detecting animals in the further area and for issuing a detection signal, a detection signal indicating that animals are present in the further area keeping the entrance gate of the further area closed. As a detection device the animal identification system may be used. As a result thereof first all the animals present in the further area are given the opportunity to enter the milking box before new animals are admitted to the further area.
In an embodiment of the patent there is provided a hierarchic order determining means for determining data in relation to the hierarchic order, wherein the hierarchic order determining means stores the determined data in relation to the hierarchic order in a memory. Such a hierarchic order determining means may be constituted by the animal identification system, a camera or the like, possibly in combination with a computer. Due to this the system generates itself the data in relation to the hierarchic order. Preferably the data are updated in the memory.